Bangladesh Joins the Search for MH370

Bangladesh was set to join the hunt for the missing Malaysian Airlines flight on Saturday March 15.

Hoang Dinh Nam/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

The Bangladeshi government said late Friday that the country’s navy will join more than 10 other countries in the search for the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 that has been missing for close to a week.

An aide to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said two of the country’s patrol aircraft and two frigates would search the coastal waters of the Bay of Bengal starting Saturday.

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Bangladesh’s navy has five frigates, including a Hamilton class cutter acquired from the U.S. Coast Guard last year. It also has around two dozen light patrol aircraft.

Military officers in Dhaka said the country’s 15,000-man navy is more suited to carrying out operations against smugglers and pirates along the jagged coast of Bangladesh than search and rescue missions.

“The type of assets the navy and coast guard have could limit Bangladesh’s involvement to just its territorial waters,” a Bangladeshi military officer said. “The indications are that the mission will be coordinated with naval forces of neighboring countries.”

This will be the first time the Bangladeshi navy has joined a search for a missing plane at sea.

The Bay of Bengal, a relatively shallow part of the northeastern Indian Ocean, occupies an area of more than 800,000 square miles and is shared by Bangladesh, India and Myanmar.

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